icon-account icon-glass

Popular Searches

Popular Products

The Lean Protein
Whey protein powder for weight-loss.
The Energy Booster
Pre/intra-workout powder with BCAAs.

CATEGORIES

Top Meditation Benefits And Techniques With Matt Pearson

13th August 2021

Fitness Health

13th August 2021

By Shivraj Bassi

What is meditation? Is meditation good for you? What is mindful meditation? All very good questions.

To get these answers, we've done some research into the many meditation benefits. We also caught up with Matt Pearson. We got chatting, and here, Matt shares some of his personal experiences with anxiety and how, despite being someone who previously scoffed at the idea of meditation, Matt found it to be the key to a more positive and healthier outlook on life.ย 

What is meditation?

Meditation is all about training yourself to be more aware of yourself, your surroundings and your feelings. The aim is to gain a healthy sense of self, through mindful techniques.ย 

The approach aims to transform your mind. Whilst there are many things that we can't control in life, meditation allows us to take control of how we approach these subjects, to encourage healthy coping mechanisms.ย 

By engaging in regular meditation, you can learn your personal thought patterns that lead to fears, anxieties and low mood. Meditation techniques such as mindful meditation allow us to develop coping techniques so that our state of mind remains peaceful through the trials and tribulations of day-to-day life.ย 

Is meditation good for you?

Absolutely. Meditation is a great way to bring an overwhelming sense of calmness, relaxation and balance into your life.ย 

Taking time out everyday to engage in mindful meditation can benefit you tremendously, not just when it comes to your mental health, but your overall and physical well-being, too.ย 

Stress is one of the biggest culprits of further health conditions and ailments, so maintaining a calm sense of self through regular mindful meditation is the key.ย 

Our favourite meditation benefits

  • Encourages an increased sense of self
  • Encourages you to be in the 'now'ย 
  • Ups your patience levels
  • Helps manage your stressย 
  • Opens up a new perspective on many situations
  • Aids in pain management and recoveryย 
  • Uplifts a person'sย memory capacityย 

How long should you meditate for?ย 

The answer to this question depends entirely on the meditation technique you're engaging in. As we're massive fans of mindful meditation, we recommend this technique.ย 

Mindfulness focuses on what you are thinking and feeling. Mindfulness involves breathing techniques such as the 4-7-8 method, as well as engaging in guided imagery strategies.ย 

Depending on your schedule, we like to engage in meditation for around 45 minutes a day. You can do this in one sitting, or split it up into morning and evening: 20 minutes for each.ย 

Matt Pearson's experience with mindfulness

Earlier this year, Matt found himself going from being a confident and driven person, to someone who didnโ€™t want to leave the house.

"It was a strange experience and my problem essentially came down to overthinking and anxiety. My experiences opened me up to the world of mental health and how millions suffer in silence."

"Being mentally strong is one of the most important things in life and my experience led to a huge shift in the way I think I want to teach health and inspire others."

Similar to sport, meditation puts the individual into a "mode" that gets them thinking about their present situation meaning unnecessary thoughts are put on hold. The aim is to get you in touch with your senses and to focus your mind. Meditation allowed me to look at stressful situations in a whole new light.

"If I feel like life is getting too much, I meditate and come back ten minutes later feeling ready to take on the challenges ahead."

Keeping an open mind

While being positive is important, remember it's ok to not be ok sometimes. If you need to talk about something, talk to your partner, your parents or your best friends.

Being able to express your emotions is important and far more healthy than having the emotional range of a teaspoon. Iโ€™m not saying you have to meditate, Iโ€™m simply saying that mental health is an issue that needs addressing and it can be reduced with methods such as meditation.

Getting started with meditationย 

Headspace is an app that teaches you how to meditate. Once you learn the fundamentals, you can target different areas of your mental health from anxiety and depression to your performance on the sports pitch.

If you suffer from anxiety, Anxiety UK has a membership package that will allow you a yearโ€™s free membership to Headspace. I wish you all the best and hope this article sharing my experiences has been useful.

To find out more about Matt, check out the Be section of our blog. You can also find him on Instagram (@pearsonfit_), Youtube (Pearson Fit) and Twitter (@pearsonfit).ย 

< Older post Newer post >

Need Expert Advice?

Take the quiz

Take the quiz

If you're not sure where to start, take our 5 minute health consultation to get product recommendations tailored to your goals.
Read more

Other Insights

Person working out

How To Stick To Your New Year Fitness Routine

Itโ€™s that time of the year again - the New Year's fitness buzz. A time where motivation is high, new workout plans are made, gym bags make a return, and everything feels full of possibility! And yet, for many people, this momentum is short-lived. By mid-February, routines can start to slip. Sessions get skipped. Motivation fades. The resolution quietly dissolves, something often accompanied by frustration or guilt. If that sounds at all familiar, itโ€™s firstly worth saying this upfront: itโ€™s not a personal failure. In most cases, itโ€™s a structural one. It might sound strange, but having a long term and consistent fitness routine isnโ€™t solely about having the most โ€˜willpowerโ€™, or forcing yourself to run just because itโ€™s โ€˜new year, new meโ€™, itโ€™s about building an individual routine that works for you and sets you up in the best position to hit your workout goals in the long term. To make things easier, weโ€™ve put together this nifty guide diving into the science of new yearโ€™s fitness, why traditional workout resolutions so often fall apart, and what genuinely helps when it comes to building habits that last for the long term. Right, letโ€™s get into it. Why New Yearโ€™s fitness resolutions donโ€™t succeedย  Before exploring how you can set your fitness goals for the long term, itโ€™s important to understand why so many fall short.ย  The main reason comes down to something psychologists call the โ€œfresh start effectโ€. This is a period that interrupts the calendar schedule (such as New Year's), creating a mental separation between the past and the future. Such a fresh start makes change - like the restarting of aย fitness routine - mentally easier to overcome because the past feels neatly boxed away.ย  While this sounds good on paper, the problem is that motivation alone isnโ€™t enough to sustain long-term behavioural change.ย  Many New Yearโ€™s fitness routines struggle to last because they often: Focus on outcomes instead of training plans and sustainable behaviours. Target instant change Focus on unrealistic fitness goals Shall we run from the top? Outcome-based targets One pitfall people often find themselves in is setting a New Yearโ€™s fitness goal that is driven by outcome without proper planning.ย  Some examples might be: Losing weightย  Getting fitย  Running a marathon All great targets to strive for, yet without a training plan or strategy to achieve them, they can quickly feel unattainable and therefore interest drops off. This makes creating and sticking to a new yearโ€™s exercise plan key to achieving your goals, asking: what do you want to achieve? What steps are you going to take to achieve them? And how will you measure your progress? Too much change and unattainable fitness goals With the fresh start effect, it can feel productive to try and overhaul all your health practices. A new training plan. A stricter diet. Earlier mornings. Fewer social plans. Better sleep. More productivity. Individually, these changes are all positive (weโ€™ve spoken about the positive effects of many in the past ourselves). Making all these large life changes in a short space of time, however, can lead to something called โ€˜cognitive overloadโ€™. Each new habit requires attention, decision-making, and self-control, leading to decision fatigue buildup and increasing the likelihood that behaviours will be dropped rather than maintained. Sustainable change tends to work the opposite way. Small, manageable shifts layered gradually over time allow habits to stabilise before new ones are added. Instead of replacing your entire lifestyle in January, long-term routines are built by choosing one or two priorities, letting them settle, and then building from there. Unrealistic fitness goals Another common reason why new year workout plans donโ€™t work is that the end goals being set arenโ€™t realistic to achieve in the time frame given. Training every day. Completely overhauling diet. Expecting visible results within weeks are just a few sure-fire ways to see your fitness plans gone by the end of January. This is because when progress isnโ€™t immediately visible, individual motivation drops. Any missed sessions start to feel like failure, and the routine becomes something to avoid rather than return to. This can lead to a plateau in motivation and a workout rut that sees you lose all motivation to continue your fitness plan. The best way to avoid this? Tailor your New Yearโ€™s workout plan to what is realistic for you to achieve. Remember, everyone is different and you should avoid trying to replicate someoneโ€™s workout plan who is at a much different point in their journey. What helps you stick to a fitness routine So now weโ€™ve covered the pitfalls faced with New Year's resolutions, what are some of the ways that you can set yourself up for success going into 2026? Starting your workouts small It might sound a little backward, but maintaining a new yearโ€™s fitness routine is all about incremental improvements - starting small and building up to ambitious fitness goals. In essence, try to make your workouts feel manageable from the outset.ย  This removes much of the physical and mental friction caused by sharp changes and removes the possibility of overtraining syndrome - something that can lead to both physical and mental fatigue. Instead of asking your body and mind to adapt to a dramatic shift all at once, you allow both to adjust gradually - which is exactly how sustainable habits are formed. Personal, not performative goals A common reason New Year's fitness routines fall apart is that the goal itself was never truly personal.ย  Many resolutions are shaped - often unconsciously - by external pressures: how we think we should look, what others are doing, or what feels โ€˜socially impressiveโ€™. These goals can create a strong initial push, but they rarely provide enough depth to sustain effort in the long term. Personal goals, by contrast, are rooted in lived experience. Theyโ€™re connected to how you want to feel day-to-day, not how you want to appear to others. Wanting more stable energy through the afternoon, fewer aches and pains, better sleep, or improved resilience during stressful periods may not sound as dramatic as a body transformation, but theyโ€™re far more motivating over time.ย  This is supported by behavioural research showing that exercise routines rooted in intrinsic motivation - feeling better, moving more easily, managing stress - are significantly more likely to be maintained long-term than goals shaped by appearance or external pressure. These outcomes are felt quickly and repeatedly, which reinforces the habit itself. Fitting fitness into your routine Again, seems counterintuitive, but a workout routine that only works under perfect conditions wonโ€™t survive beyond January.ย  You canโ€™t change things like long workdays, family responsibilities, travel, and low-energy weeks, and you shouldnโ€™t try to. Your regular workout routine should function around these things. The key here is that fitness is flexible. It allows for shorter sessions, longer sessions, varied training styles, and a broader definition of movement that can all be tailored to your day-to-day routine. Your also not limited by location, you could workout at home, at the gym, with groups, whatever fits into your routine.ย  The role of recovery in New Yearโ€™s fitness One of the most overlooked reasons people struggle to stick to New Yearโ€™s fitness routines is actually physical and mental fatigue. While this is to be expected to some extent - and you can control fatigue by following the above tips - you also need to consider the importance of effective recovery and how you are fuelling your body between workouts. Just some of the ways you can improve recovery are: Sleep quality: Quality sleep is when the body actually recovers, repairs tissue, and resets energy levels for the next day. Without it, even light training can start to feel disproportionately demanding. Effective hydration: Staying properly hydrated helps support circulation, muscle function, and focus, making both workouts and recovery feel smoother and more manageable. Complete nutrition: Providing the body with enough protein, carbohydrates, fats, and micronutrients gives it the building blocks it needs to repair, adapt, and maintain steady energy over time. Itโ€™s also worth considering tailoredย nutrition-focusedย supplementation such as Innermostโ€™s The Recover Capsules and The Hydrate Blend. Reframing New Year fitness: from resolution to routine An effective mindset shift you can make this new year is moving away from the idea of a โ€œresolutionโ€ and towards a routine. Resolutions are often outcome-focused - lose weight, build muscle, run faster. Routines are behaviour-focused - train three times a week, walk daily, prioritise recovery. This reframing is also key when thinking about how to stick to your New Yearโ€™s fitness resolution. Instead of asking, โ€œAm I seeing results yet?โ€, the more useful question becomes, โ€œCan I repeat this next week?โ€ Remember, the most effective fitness routines arenโ€™t created in January - theyโ€™re carried through February, March, and beyond. References Dai, H., Milkman K.L., Riis,J. (2013).The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior. Management Science. 60 (10), 2563-2582.ย Click here. Cezar, B., Macada, A. (2023). Cognitive Overload, Anxiety, Cognitive Fatigue, Avoidance Behavior and Data Literacy in Big Data environments. Information Processing & Management. 60 (6). Click here. Ntoumanis, N., Healy, L. et.al. (2014). Self-Regulatory Responses to Unattainable Goals: The Role of Goal Motives. 13 (5), 594-612. Click here. Cleveland Clinic. Overtraining Syndrome. Click here. Sebire,S., Standage, M., Vansteenkiste,M. (2011). Predicting objectively assessed physical activity from the content and regulation of exercise goals: evidence for a mediational model. 33 (2), 175-197. Click here. ย 
Read more
Why the Festive Period Breaks Your Habits

Why the Festive Period Breaks Your Habits

Every year, the festive period gets blamed for breaking peopleโ€™s health. Too many meals out. Too many late nights. Too many โ€œIโ€™ll start again in Januaryโ€ moments. By the time the New Year arrives, the narrative is already locked in. Damage done. Time to reset, detox, or punish yourself back into shape. But hereโ€™s the truth. The festive period doesnโ€™t ruin your health. Losing structure does. The end of the year is uniquely disruptive. Work schedules loosen. Social plans multiply. Travel, celebrations, and irregular routines blur the days together. Sleep shifts later. Meal timing becomes unpredictable. Hydration drops. Movement becomes sporadic. Stress quietly rises. Food gets the blame because itโ€™s visible. But the real changes are happening beneath the surface. Our bodies are built around rhythm. Circadian biology governs hormones, appetite, energy, glucose regulation, and recovery. When sleep timing drifts and meals become inconsistent, insulin sensitivity drops, hunger cues become noisier, and cravings increase. Not because youโ€™ve lost discipline, but because your physiology is responding exactly as it should. This is why willpower fails so reliably during the festive period. Willpower is not a plan. It never was. Behaviour follows environment. And the end-of-year environment is designed to disrupt even the best intentions. More social pressure. More choice. Less routine. Less recovery. Expecting motivation to override that is unrealistic. Yet the wellness industry loves this moment. January resets. Detoxes. Thirty-day transformations. The implication is always the same. You slipped up. Now fix it. That framing is wrong. You didnโ€™t fail. Your anchors disappeared. So instead of trying to be perfect between now and the New Year, thereโ€™s a better approach. Protect structure. Not outcomes. I think of this as a Minimum Effective Routine. The smallest set of habits that keep your system regulated when life gets noisy. You donโ€™t need control all day. You need a few non-negotiables. First, a morning anchor. How you start the day sets the tone for everything that follows. Consistent wake times, early light exposure, and hydration matter more than whether you train or not. Even during the festive period, waking within a similar window each day helps stabilise energy, appetite, and sleep later on. Second, a nutrition anchor. Health doesnโ€™t unravel because of one rich meal. It unravels when eating becomes random. Skipped meals followed by late, heavy dinners create blood sugar swings that drive overeating. One simple rule makes a difference. Anchor at least one meal per day around protein and fibre. No tracking. No guilt. Just consistency. Protein in particular becomes critical when routines loosen. It supports lean mass, regulates appetite hormones like GLP-1, and reduces the likelihood of grazing later in the day. Third, a movement anchor. This is not about training hard. Itโ€™s about staying active. Walking, light resistance work, mobility, or a short session at home. Ten to twenty minutes counts. Movement improves glucose handling, digestion, mood, and sleep quality. It is one of the most reliable ways to offset stress and irregular eating. Fourth, an evening wind-down anchor. Late nights are part of the festive period. Thatโ€™s normal. What matters is how often they stack. Alcohol, screens, and social stimulation all fragment sleep. A simple wind-down routine most nights helps signal safety to your nervous system. Lower lights. Fewer screens. Breathing. Reading. Repetition matters more than perfection. These anchors donโ€™t make you โ€œhealthyโ€. They keep you regulated. Now, an honest word on supplements. Supplements wonโ€™t rescue a chaotic routine. Anyone promising that is selling shortcuts. But they can support physiology when structure is under pressure. Hydration often drops at this time of year, especially when alcohol intake increases. Electrolytes support fluid balance, nerve signalling, and muscle function. Protein becomes more important when meals are irregular, helping to stabilise appetite and maintain muscle. Micronutrients also matter when sleep, stress, and food quality are inconsistent. This is how we think about Innermost products. Not as a reset. Not as a fix. But as tools that support the fundamentals when life is busy and routines loosen. The biggest mistake people make is treating the festive period as a write-off and the New Year as a clean slate. That approach creates a cycle of extremes. If you protect structure now, the New Year doesnโ€™t need repairing. Thereโ€™s no detox required. No dramatic restart. Just continuity. Finally, as we close out the year, I want to say thank you. Thank you for your support. Thank you for trusting us in an industry that often values hype over health. And thank you for being part of a community that cares about doing things properly. I hope you enjoy the festive period with your friends and loved ones, get some well-earned rest, and step into 2026 feeling steady, not behind.
Read more